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| Japan during cherry blossoms |
And of course, I was once again impressed with the people and the culture of the country.
Workweek in Kobe
It was a long way to get to Japan as it was cherry blossom season, all major flights were already booked and I had to take a connecting flight through Helsinki. At the Helsinki airport, I noticed a lot more flights to Japanese cities, as compared to any other European airport. And then I remembered that the two countries share a very old and deep relationship.
Finland looked quite bare and snowed out from the air, with only a little bit of green here and there, while Japan was the opposite. The first views of Japan (once I woke up!) were of small green islands appearing in the water, with snow laden mountains visible far off and loads of fog everywhere. I hadn’t realised till then that Japan was quite a mountainous country.
Being back in Japan brought about an explosion of feelings (again), of its deep culture, its uniqueness and differences from the rest of the world and its eccentricities. Again I felt like an explorer, standing open-eyed in front of a country which has so much to offer to someone willing to explore. And immediately, I felt again that Japan is a juxtaposition of extremes. The old and the new, the polite and the kinky, the open and the closed. There are so many words which come to mind when thinking about Japan as a country - exotic, calm, deep, contradictory and so on. And it was the same this thing around as on my last visit to the country.
I had flown to the Osaka airport as it was one of the closest airport to Kobe. The airport is located on an island, connected to the mainland through a long bridge and it was about 1.5 hours drive to Kobe. As expected, the airport was very efficient and I was soon on my way. The road till Kobe was all along the port, totally industrial and very boring. So even though it was along the sea, it wasn’t really too exciting to look out.
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| Kobe |
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| View from Nunobiki herb garden |
One day we walked out from the hotel to a small street nearby which was lined with expat trader houses, and small shops from different countries. Apparently these were all houses of people from trading partners of Japan from much before, like British, Indians and so all. The small cultural houses felt nice after all the only high-rises we had seen around. It turns out Kobe is quite a multi-cultural town as such, as compared to some other Japanese towns, as it was one of the few and earliest Japanese towns which were open for business much before Japan opened up. But it wasn’t so apparent to me initially.
We did not go out of our hotel much though other than dinner at Kitano club which was a restaurant with a scintillating view of the city, especially at night with the twinkling lights and high-rises all around. I also went to Gaylord’s restaurant which is owned by a friend of mine. Its apparently one of the oldest Indian restaurants in Kobe, and I loved that I could eat Indian food there. Kobe is of course famous for its Kobe beef and sushi, but given my food preferences, I hadn’t been able to eat much of the Japanese food when I was there. So I really welcomed the Indian food!
About the Kobe hotels
I was staying in Crowne Plaza which was a multi storey hotel with the mountains on one side and the city on the other. The view of the city from the room windows were all beautiful. It had multiple restaurants on the 34th, 35th and the 36th floors with great views of the city but the restaurants all closed down by 830 pm! So you always need to hurry up if you want to eat dinner😜. The hotel was conveniently located for all travel around. If you take the lift to the bottom floor, you are right at the metro station as well as the Shinkansen, ready to explore all of Japan!
Trips from Kobe
I made Kobe my base for my weekend travels around. To be honest, it may not be the best option as its quite a lacklustre town. But it was definitely convenient to travel around.
On the last day of our training, we had half a day left and went for a quick trip to Kyoto, which given the fast bullet trains was so much more efficient and convenient than I would have thought. We took the Shinkansen from Kobe, which took about 30 minutes to get to Kyoto. Apparently you can take the slower trains too for much cheaper but we didn’t know. While going to Kyoto, we got a direct train, with one stop in between at Shin Osaka. And while coming back, we took a connecting one through Shin Osaka. But the train connections were very convenient and regular. Buying the tickets was a bit complicated though, as we had to buy both express tickets and fare tickets. And so had to stand in line after buying the tickets from the kiosk, as they only sell the express tickets.
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| Kiyomizudera temple |
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| One of the smaller shrines |
From the temple, we started walking towards the river, through the markets. We walked into a whiskey shop which was selling a lot of exotic and rare whiskeys. Then we walked along the river, where there were a few cherry blossoms just blooming. And on the other side, we could see the old houses, made of wood, from a time far away.
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| One of the Kyoto streets |
During all this searching, we also walked next to the very small canals in this area, which were lined with cherry blossoms which had bloomed a lot more than any of the others we had seen. And the canals provided a great photo opportunity finally. Being in Kyoto always gives the feeling of having come back to a world from a long time away. I loved the blossoms there and the whole ambience, it was like reliving a year ago.
We had to walk around a bit to search for a place to eat, and then finally walked into a touristy place offering western food. It was right next to a canal and had some great cherry blossoms which provided a nice ambience as we sat outside for a bit next to the canal. Soon though it got too cold to sit outside and we sat inside for dinner. The food there was really bad but at least we were fed.
Anyways, we were done with our half day trip by then, and took a cab to take the Shinkansen back to Kobe. Wile driving back we realised that right next to the restaurant there were some cherry blossoms in full bloom which we had missed. Anyways, we took the Shinkansen from there and were very soon back in Kobe and all settled in.
I also realised this week that cherry blossoms blooming dates are so variable in the country. It was supposed to be peak season in Kobe the week and weekend I was there (as late as the week before, that was the forecast). But it had got cooler the last two weeks and the blossoms had got delayed by a week. People were planning picnics this weekend and they all had to postpone. And this year Tokyo peaked earlier than Kyoto, while last year, Kyoto peak was before Tokyo (which is normally the case).
So we had been extremely extremely lucky to have seen what we saw last year. Especially since we had booked our trip almost a year in advance. Generally tourists travelling from far with less flexibility would not be as lucky as we had been.
Day trip to Arima Onsen
On the Saturday, it was supposed to be a rainy day, so I kept the plan for the day more focused on indoor activity rather than outdoors and took a trip to the onsen in the nearby village of Arima. I first had to get an umbrella from the hotel where I was staying as it was so sunny. And then was off to the Sannomiya train station. As I was walking to the station, I walked past 2-3 Nepali-Indian restaurants on the way. Which I found quite interesting. That's a sure sign, that the place is touristy 😜.
I was also trying to take out cash that day and it turned out to be surprisingly tough as there were not as many ATMs around as I would have expected. I first walked to the ATM the hotel receptionist had told me about. And it turned out it didn’t even accept international debit cards! Thankfully, there was a Nomura ATM around to save the day.
I was earlier planning to take the underground to Arima, but I missed the train. Then I realised, there was also a bus option to get to Arima. Given that it was Japan, I decided to be adventurous and take the bus from Sannomiya bus terminal. The terminal was so huge, with trains, metro, buses and all the shops, that it took me a bit of help to get to the bus terminal within the building. It didn’t help that most people didn’t know English and there were very few signs in English.
The bus took about 45-50 mins to get there and it was an interesting experience altogether. The weather was very rainy and fresh. And the bus went through a tunnel, into the mountains. The whole drive was then through mountainous areas, with the bus stopping at many small villages on the way, like Tanigami and Hanayama. The mountains were mostly bare and sometimes the peaks were covered with fog. There were loads of bamboo trees lining the road side along the way. All villages had small streams flowing through them. And the village houses were sometimes pretty and sometimes not. And all along the bus route was the train line running next to it.
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| Arima village |
I tried finding the onsen and it wasn’t easy to get around without English. So I walked into a hotel and got all the information I needed in one go. The onsen in Arima are apparently the oldest springs in Japan and they have two onsens there - the golden and the silver springs, both with different minerals and different properties. Both of them were walking distance from the centre, and I went to the closer one, called the Kin No You So.
It was quite an interesting experience to be there. All the systems around were working like clockwork, so it was all very convenient. There was a place to keep the umbrella, place for the shoes, kiosk to get your tickets, a queue for key to the lockers, lockers to keep clothes and so on, one after the other. There was a queue to get into the onsen as it was the weekend, so I had wait a bit. There were a few separate pools inside, all with different temperatures and minerals. The water was too hot though and I couldn’t stay more than 30 mins. But I did feel refreshed once I got out.
After that, I walked around a bit in the village and it was quite cute to be there. I walked through the market, with the wooden shops on both sides. And saw some of the pretty wooden houses around. It felt like I was in a different era, not the glitzy Japan we all know but a more older calmer slower Japan.
There were buses back every hour to Kobe, so I caught one of the last ones. And as expected, the buses left exactly on time from the bus stop. I was soon back to today’s age with the high-rises and the fast pace of Kobe. It almost felt that day that I had visited the Japan of old, from a different era. And felt very relaxed after being there.
In Kobe, I had dinner with Indian friends at the Gaylord restaurant, one of the older Indian restaurants in the city, running since 1973. As my friends had been staying in Japan for years, I learnt some more interesting titbits about the country, and as I said, Japan continues to amaze me.
The Japanese wear suits when working, and when not in suit means they are not working 😜. They mostly have mistresses and work very late. There is also apparently a huge Gujju community in and around Kobe, They are all third generation and have been staying there for a very long time, as Kobe was the only city open to trade while Japan was still closed. There is also a Jain temple and Gurudwara in Kobe, which I never expected!
Apparently, for all its law and order, Japan does have a very strong underground mafia (I guess anyone who sees movies knows that already, but for me that was news). They deal in drugs and fight each other, but are extremely polite to the locals. A funny scene I heard of was that when the Mafia Yakuza boss is running in the park, his 6-7 bodyguards run around him in suits. And when anyone passes them, they all bow to passers-by in synchronisation. In suits, while running😂. That is a sight I would like to see sometime.
The mafia regularly give gifts to the community and help the locals as they need their support to survive. They pay off the Japanese police, so looks like the Japanese police is also corrupt. And the mafia are supposed to have very cruel rules, especially of cutting off fingers. And hearing of all this really burst the Japanese bubble for me. So the Japanese again are this mix of extremes, honest and corrupt, lawful and lawless.
Himeji castle
I decided to visit the Himeji castle on my last day as the weather was sunny and I hadn’t been there before. As usual, it was easy to get there with the convenient Japanese train travel. You just walk to the station and can buy tickets as there are regular trains going to all the major stations. For Himeji, I didn’t take the Shinkansen though as it was more expensive. I took the JR from Sannomiya and it took about 40 mins to get there. As Himeji was a touristy destination, they were announcing in English which helped.
The train ride was mostly right next to the ocean, and I saw grand views of the sea, the islands and some resorts on that route. I also saw the bridge to Akashi and Shikoku islands on the way. It was sunny too, so I saw some very fascinating views.
The town of Himeji seemed to be centred around the castle and the moment you get off the train, you can see the castle right in front. The path from the station to the castle was about 10 mins and it was lined with shops on both sides. I had lunch at the farmers lunch place - Sorairo kitchen, which thankfully had vegetarian options in the menu, explained in English. I had a pizza made in the Japanese style and then walked in to the castle.
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| Himeji castle |
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| View of Himeji |
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| Himeji Castle |
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| View from the castle |
Apparently there was a night festival also going on for sakura, which can be experienced in the evening when the castle is all lighted up. I had to get to Kobe before night, so I missed out. I did find a great cherry blossom there to get a nice pic though. I did a bit of shopping in the local department store and took the JR train back to Sannomiya.
And was off to Kansai airport in Osaka. The highway to the airport was lined with lights all the way, the shiny glitzy Japan we all know of, with high rises and lights dazzling everywhere. Its interesting how in a day, you can get from where to where in Japan.
At the airport, the counter opened only 2.5 hours before the flight while I turned up 4.5 hours before so I could chill in the lounge 🤣. It clearly din happen. Also a lot of the restaurants closed by 930 pm which was such a bummer. Anyways I got to eat some Udon noodles in one of the restaurants and was ready to come back to London.
Stay in Sannomiya Kobe Union hotel
I was staying in a small boutique hotel in Kobe during the weekend and was surprised at how convenient it was. The rooms were small as per Japanese standards but everything else was great, especially the service.
Other things to do in and around Kobe
There are a few other things to do in and around Kobe if you have more time. I didn’t this time, but maybe for some other time...
- Roko cable car: You can take the cable car to go up the Roko mountain and spend a half day there
- Sakura tunnel: You can see a tunnel of cherry blossoms, and its about 15-20 mins bus ride from the city
- Shukugawa: Line of cherry blossoms along the river, is about 15 mins train ride away
- Awagishima: Is an island nearby, takes about 1 hour to get there
- Wakayama: Beautiful countryside nearby, need a car to get there though
Impressions of Japan
- My first thought on landing in Japan was, how polite is everyone! I actually had a feeling of how nice it was to be with very polite people again. If there is someone walking behind you, he/she will wait behind you if you suddenly stop, and not try to cross you. Everyone who is providing any service will bow to you, especially in the Shinkansen. Everyone was so quiet in the trains, not talking to anyone else. And they all wear masks. I had a very interesting experience. We asked one of the guards how to take the connecting Shinkansen from Kyoto to Kobe. He did not know English and couldn’t help us. But once we boarded the train, the ticket master came to tell us how to get to Kobe! And it looks like the guards from the Kyoto station had told him to help the Indian lady on the train to get to Kobe😜. I am still amazed at this level of helpfulness and can't get past it
- It still felt a bit tough to get by with English. People speak much less English than what I was expecting. My friend said that most of the Japanese do know English as they are taught in school. But they are too shy to be wrong. So they prefer to not help you as their English is not great and they don’t want to be wrong. That makes more sense than most of the country not knowing English! Though I don’t mind some wrong English if it helps. But of course, when they can speak, they are extremely helpful and take a lot of effort and spend time to help you.
- The Japanese keep quite to themselves. And have too many rules. While coming down from the herb garden, no one would sit with a stranger in the same gondola. They would rather let it go empty and go onto the next one! Which led to long queues. Also there was a service person cleaning the gondola seats before the next person got it. Japan really has a very different standard of cleanliness than anywhere else I've been
- The Japanese have their dinner too early, at 630 pm! So a lot of the restaurants closed down by 10 or so. So we all needed to be extra careful everyday to get to the restaurants on time
- People follow the rules too much. I was checking out from my hotel an hour later and the receptionist said he would charge me extra for the one hour too! I tried asking him for a discount and he didn't get what I was asking him for 😝. Sometimes I feel Japan and India are quite on the opposite ends of many metrics
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